I asked my kids to help me gather up all of our Amazon devices. Whoa, we have a lot more than I realized! 😳

Let me tell you what I like, what I love and what I could have passed on…

Let’s start with the “pass”:

The Amazon Fire Phone… Ugh! Of course, it’s not just me. This device was so unpopular that they don’t even have it anymore. Oh well. The one time we “early adopt”!

Next up, these are the Kindle devices I have and LOVE:

First, I highly highly recommend the Echo (we have the 1st generation — I like the look of the 2nd generation even more!). The sound quality on this is absolutely amazing! It sounds like a Bose speaker.

The Echo 2nd Gen is on sale for Prime Day for just $69.99, regularly $119.99! At this price point, you can get the charcoal, heather grey and sandstone. That’s a STEAL. (It’s the best price it’s ever been — I paid $89.99 last year, which WAS the best price… until now!)

I love using our Echo to set alarms and reminders (“Alexa, remind me at 1:30 pm to punch down the challah”), and to answer quick kitchen questions (“Alexa, how many cups are in a gallon?”). My kids love playing 20 Questions and asking Alexa to tell them a joke. Frankie listens to all his podcasts while washing the dishes. And of course, we all love the music. (Definitely consider getting the cheap Amazon Music subscription if you’re gonna buy a Dot or Echo!)

The Dot, which we also have, is on sale for $29.99 today (reg. $49.99) — matching the Black Friday price from 2017. The Dot can do everything that the Echo can do. The difference is the speaker. The sound isn’t bad, but it’s not AS rich as the Echo. If you can only get one device, I’d say go with the Echo. However, as you can see, we have both. And we may get a second Dot (don’t tell my 15 year old – it’s a belated birthday gift). The Dots live in our bedrooms, while the Echo is in our kitchen/family room.

We also LOVE the Kindle Paperwhite, which is on sale today for only $79.99. We got ours (the middle Kindle in the pic above) at last year’s Prime Day, when it was $89.99. This additional $10 drop makes it the very lowest price EVER on the Paperwhite.

Now, in all honesty, I just really prefer reading an ACTUAL book. I’m old. And old fashioned. But if I’m going to read a book on a screen, the Paperwhite is by far a superior experience to any of the other Kindles. If you want a device for READING, this is the one. My husband does 90% of his reading on this and has come to prefer it. He loves that it holds his place, that you can look up words while you’re ready and cross reference other texts, too.

And finally, what I have and LIKE:

We have the 2nd edition (I think) Kindle Fire. It’s on sale for just $29.99. At this price, it actually should be in the “love” category. I paid more than twice that when we bought ours a few years ago… but the prices just keeping coming down, down, down!

The Fire is a great “extra” tablet – we usually bring it on plane and car trips, to cut down on screen arguments. As our kids have moved into their own devices (both of my boys have smartphones now), the need for a tablet has lessened. But if you still have younger kids, or don’t want them to be on a phone, this is a great option. You do need wifi access to download books, games, videos and movies.

You’ll notice that we also have the Kindle Kids Fire, which is on sale today for $69.99, regularly $99.99. This one is also worth being in the “love” category for this price. This device is “kid-proof” — if your child breaks it, flushes it in the toilet, or who knows what else, Amazon will replace it (in the first two years), totally free of charge, NO QUESTIONS ASKED. If you get the Kids Kindle or the regular Fire for your kids, you may want to consider getting the awesome deal on Kindle Unlimited to go with it.

Last but not least, I recommend the Amazon Fire stick. It’s on sale for Prime Day for $19.99, regularly $39.98. It was $24.99 last year — so this is even $5 lower. We use it even in Israel to watch American programming. And it’s one of the devices that we used to cut our dependence on the “cord” — i.e. cable. At this price, it’s REALLY a no-brainer. There are other Fire stick deals today, too. For example, if you’re thinking about the Fire Stick AND the Dot, you can get them both for $44.98 – an extra $5 savings over buying them separately.

I’d love to hear what Amazon devices you have and recommend? Which one(s), if any, are you planning to buy today?

Comments

Comments

One thing you did not mention about the Kindle kids Fire is the parental controls. Amazon has one of the best for setting up educational goals before “fun”, also restriction of web, video, or apps. Also you can have it turn off at a certain time of the night. I have found them all very useful for reducing the demanding to get off. When the time is up it just shuts down.